Welcome to the world, Grayson Theodore!

October 23, 2019 - Wednesday morning

37 degrees/cloudy/windy

Pentoga Road

The newest branch on the Milligan family tree made his grand entrance this past weekend. Grayson will join his big brother, Lincoln, as well as Sargie's nephew, Garth and Garth's beautiful wife, Courtney.

Congratulations to all. 

Arg, it's another dreary and cold day, but at least it's not raining... yet. I guess some areas to the north and west of us received snow overnight, but so far, we're just wet. 

This year has all the makings of another bad one.

After seeing Sargie off to work on Tuesday morning, I let the fire in the stove go out then sanded and applied a new coat of high temperature paint.

There's a story to go with the paint job.

Often, in the early fall, when there's just a chill in the room, but not cold enough to start a fire, we use a small electric heater to take the chill out of the air. The last time the unit was used, it was set on top of the cold wood stove that had yet to be lit for the season.

A week later, some lame brain lit a fire before he removed the electric heater. Though it was inches away from my head, I didn't see the silly thing.

As Mom used to say when I was growing up and couldn't find something that was in plain sight, "What does it have to do, reach out and bite you?"

I wouldn't have minded being bitten by the electric heater. 

Needless to say, the plastic on the heater melted onto the wood stove making for a colossal mess.

Yesterday I sanded, wiped, cleaned, then applied a coat of stove black. It now looks new again.

The entire rest of the day was spent in the shop. I wanted to get the mommy present out of the way, so I was determined that I would do more than just putter around. 

I was a man on a mission.

It was almost four o'clock before I exited. Other than some touch up on the finish, the piece is complete. 

I'm finished with my mommy gifts for a while. 

It was time to make something that I wanted to work on before beginning my Thanksgiving work. I decided to make a Hutterite boy and girl, walking away hand in hand.

The pattern was fashioned from a picture I saw online and it will be my most difficult segmented piece yet. 

I'm looking forward to the challenge.

Rain was still pounding down when Sargie arrived home from work. We went to town for her Coke then, with a fire crackling in the stove, settled in for a cozy evening.

I'm heading back out to the shop in a couple of minutes. I'm anxious to continue working on the children that I began yesterday, plus it's time to crank up the lathe and begin turning a bowl or two. 

I've got the yearning.

After all, a man's work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...